I did some research and what the Pope said isn't so new - other Christian theologians have had the same view and the last pope, Benedict, wrote:
"With respect to the way in which the salvific grace of God ? which is always given by means of Christ in the Spirit and has a mysterious relationship to the Church ? comes to individual non-Christians, the Second Vatican Council limited itself to the statement that God bestows it "in ways known to himself"."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_Christianity